Year: 2014

This time of year is so hectic it’s hard to find the time to read. I love nothing more than a heartwarming Christmas story to put me in the holiday spirit. Unfortunately, I usually don’t find the time until the … Read more...

Talking with Jerry Doyle earlier in the week, what started as a tangent to a conversation on terrorism turned into a full blown interview about Hollywood’s underbelly. We discuss the dust-up caused by the Sony Hack and media release of … Read more...

Christmas can be a tough time of year. I know this from experience. It’s easy to become overwhelmed with the demands on our time, bank accounts, sanity. For many years, I have struggled to hold onto any kind of genuine … Read more...

It was several years after 9/11 before I had occasion to once again board a plane. Arriving at airport security, the sight of everyone in line, by rote, yanking off their belts and shoes shocked me enough that tears rolled … Read more...

I first discovered Sonja Yoerg when her nonfiction book about animal intelligence, CLEVER AS A FOX, popped up on Goodreads (“How interesting!” said the animal lover in me). I was fascinated by … Read more...

“One of the great tragedies of life
is that men seldom bridge the gulf
between practice and profession,
between doing and saying.
A persistent schizophrenia
leaves so many of us
tragically divided against ourselves.
On the one hand,
we proudly

Those of us who feasted on a diet of Looney Tunes and Doritos each Saturday morning as children probably grew up thinking that those funny desert plants zipping past the roadrunner and coyote were all pretty much the same: deep … Read more...

When we think of fresh fruits and vegetables, we immediately think “healthy.” And not about actually feeling better. We think more about all the work — storing, cleaning, chopping, slicing, cooking that it takes to prepare them, and less about … Read more...

I read a lot of galleys. A lot of them. My dream is to discover the next big thing before they’re actually, you know, the next big thing. Everybody loves to have a good “I knew them when” story. Sometimes … Read more...

GoldieBlox released a video ad introducing their new action figure for girls (video below). I was thrilled to read in the press release of their intention to “show girls more options and lead them to a world full of possibilities.” … Read more...

What’s your mindset? Research shows that people with a “ growth mindset ” are more likely to focus on taking small steps to reach goals, experimenting along the way, while people with a “fixed mindset” tend to believe that talent … Read more...

I recently asked if we are now a Botox Nation, preferring Barbie and Ken’s wrinkle-free faces, boobs of steel that say Hi! to the ceiling and six pack abs to a less glamorous reality. It was both surprising and … Read more...

The midterm elections are upon us and famously have lower turnouts, but it’s more important than ever to vote. Midterms may not be as sexy. But they matter. If you get even one person into office who’s better than the … Read more...

We’ve long been told “we are what we eat” and we need to “eat well to be well” in our physical health. Fruits and vegetables have long been known to promote longevity and decrease risks of chronic diseases such as … Read more...

One in eight women will develop or die from breast cancer. Having a mission statement to end breast cancer is noble in words. How an organization goes about achieving that mission shows whether it is noble in deed.

Once upon a time, an interesting species of turtle became extinct. Last seen in 1908, the Arakan Forest Turtle, Heosemys depressa, disappeared and was never seen again. (This seems like a sad story, but stick with me.)

Today, sitting outside at a cafe on Grand Avenue, I met a two-month old baby, Stella, her mother, and her grandmother. We chatted under the shade of a tree, while Stella followed her grandmother’s words with her blue gray eyes, … Read more...